


Cracks

by capt_eli



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 16:32:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1311589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capt_eli/pseuds/capt_eli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basch grieves for what he lost at Landis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cracks

Basch is thrown into a cell, manacles biting into his wrists, blood on his knees and bruises on his arms, and there he weeps.

The guards leave him and another approaches. No, not a guard. Basch doesn’t need to look, doesn’t want to. He cannot bear to see his mirror image now. That face once so familiar, now spattered with blood and painted with hatred. Basch feels the gaze burning into his skull.

“Spare me your tears.” The voice is cold and quiet. Basch does not recognize it. Not anymore. A hand grips the bars of his cell and the voice breaks, just barely.

“Why weep for a kingdom that was not yours?” it spits. “Did you weep for Landis? Your _home_?”

Basch takes a steadying breath. He lifts his shackled hands to wipe at his face and when he speaks his voice is rough but calm. “This is not for Dalmasca.”

“Who, then?” The composure is slipping. Fresh tears slip unbidden down Basch’s face. “What allegiance is so deserving of your grief?”

Basch lifts his head. The man beyond the bars is not the man he once knew. His eyes are too wide, brows knit in effort to hold this façade. His gaze is unsteady, uncomfortable. He fears the answer.

“I weep for my brother.” The man’s face twists, pained. Basch does not look away. “He has died.”

The composure breaks and, for only a moment, Basch sees Noah in the cracks. He sees him in the mouth that opens but remains silent, in the eyes that well with tears. But then Gabranth blinks hard and turns on his heel, leaving Basch alone with the ghosts in his memories.


End file.
